Avery Brooks
Avery Franklin Brooks is an accomplished stage, television, and film actor best known for his role as Benjamin Sisko in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. He is the only actor to appear in all 176 episodes of the series, and has also directed several episodes. Biography Hailing from Evansville, Indiana, Brooks attended Oberlin College in Ohio as well as Indiana University. He ultimately became the first African-American to receive an MFA in acting and directing from Rutgers University in New Jersey, and is currently a tenured professor of theatre arts at that institution. He also became Artistic Director of the National Black Arts Festival in 1993. He served as the Artistic Director of the ten-day festival celebrating the art and culture of the African Diaspora in Atlanta, Georgia during the 1994 and 1996 festivals. Raised in a muscially-gifted family, Brooks has a passion for playing jazz piano as well as acting. As an actor, he received acclaim for his portrayal of Paul Robeson in the long-running one-man show of the same name. Brooks' stage credits also include many Shakespeare characters, including Othello, Oberon, and King Lear. At the end of Ossie Davis' funeral on , Brooks read the epilogue from the 1961 play "Purlie Victorious," which Davis wrote. In March 2006, he played the piano at the funeral for Gordon Parks, who gave Brooks his first television acting experience when Parks directed him in Solomon Northrup's Odyssey in 1984. Brooks also sang the theme from The Learning Tree, a film that Parks wrote and directed. Brooks has been married to Viola Bowen since 1976. The couple have three children: Ayana, Asante and Cabral. Career Television ]] While best known for playing Ben Sisko, Brooks had his first episodic television starring role in Spenser: For Hire as the lead character's partner, Hawk. Brooks would go on to reprise the role of Hawk in the short-lived spinoff, A Man Called Hawk. Prior to this, he made his television acting debut playing the title role in the 1984 TV adaptation of Solomon Northup's Odyssey. In 1987, he again played the title role in a TV adaptation of a famous novel, this time Uncle Tom's Cabin, which co-starred future fellow Star Trek performers Bill Bolender and Albert Hall. Aside from these, he made an appearance in 1985's Finnegan Begin Again (starring Bob Gunton and David Huddleston) and played the role of Cletus Moyer in 1988's Roots: The Gift. The latter also starred Star Trek: The Next Generation actor LeVar Burton in his famous role of Kunte Kinte and also featured future Star Trek: Voyager stars Kate Mulgrew and Tim Russ. Brooks was cast as Benjamin Sisko, commander of space station Deep Space 9, in 1992. For his performance in this role, Brooks received two Image Award nomination as Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, one in 1996 and another in 1997. Also in 1997, he received a Saturn Award nomination from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films for his portrayal of Sisko. Brooks remained with the series through all seven seasons, appearing in every single episode, while at the same time continuing his professorship in theater arts at Rutgers University – sometimes instructing classes in his character's costume! While Deep Space Nine was still in production, Brooks continued to star in a number of Spencer telefilms. He also become one of many Star Trek performers to voice in the animated series Gargoyles; others who have done so include LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn, Jonathan Frakes, Kate Mulgrew, Nichelle Nichols, John Rhys-Davies, Salli Elise Richardson, W. Morgan Sheppard, Marina Sirtis, Brent Spiner, David Warner, Frank Welker, and Paul Winfield. Films & Documentaries Brooks made his feature film debut in 1998, playing a mafia kingpin in the action thriller The Big Hit. This was followed that same year with the critically-acclaimed drama American History X, which also starred Star Trek: Voyager's Jennifer Lien. Also in 1998, Brooks' deep, commanding voice was employed to narrate various documentary programs, including Africans in America: America's Journey Through Slavery, Africa's Elephant Kingdom and The Greatest Places. After Deep Space Nine ended its run in 1999, Brooks continued to act on stage and continued narrating documentaries such as Jesus: The Complete Story, The Ballad of Big Al, Land of the Mammoth, and Walking with Dinosaurs. He also hosted the Discovery Channel show Unsolved History for a few years. He also makes infrequent appearances in films: In 2001, he had a supporting role as a police detective in the film 15 Minutes, which also featured Kim Cattrall and Kelsey Grammer. And in 2006, he was cast in the fourth Rambo film, set for release in 2007. Directorial Credits *"Tribunal" (Season 2) *"The Abandoned" (Season 3) *"Fascination" *"Improbable Cause" *"Rejoined" (Season 4) *"Body Parts" *"Ties of Blood and Water" (Season 5) *"Far Beyond the Stars" (Season 6) *"The Dogs of War" (Season 7) External Links * Official Fan Club * * Brooks, Avery Brooks, Avery Brooks, Avery de:Avery Brooks es:Avery Brooks fr:Avery Brooks